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Oastler Centre regeneration will help to secure jobs, not leave them behind, claims Bradford councillor.

By Elle Rigby

A Bradford councillor has hit back at claims that the regeneration of the Oastler Centre will leave businesses behind.

Yesterday, Jeff Frankel, who owns Sydneys Jewellers in Bradford, spoke to BCB about a campaign he’s organised to protest the regeneration of the Oastler Centre.

Mr Frankel was concerned that council plans intending to push the flow of trade towards Darley Street may leave some businesses behind.

He said: “A lot of the people inside the market won’t have room to move where they want them to go to so the council will pick and choose who they want to move in.

“Forget about traders like me who’ve been here for forty-one years!”

Labour Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, portfolio holder for regeneration planning and transport, says that if changes are not made now, it could lead to everyone in the market losing their job.

The existing Oastler Centre is to be demolished and turned into housing, as part of the Council’s £15 million to overhaul their city-centre markets.

Traders will instead move to the old Marks and Spencer building in Darley Street into a new food market.

But Councillor Shaw says: “This really is about trying to secure jobs. The councils not in the business of going against businesses or losing jobs.

“We want to secure those jobs and the worry is if we just allow the status quo with the declining footfall that’s taking place at that end of town over a number of years, everyone could lose a job if the centre closed because of a lack of trade.”

 

What do you think?